Urgent Action: North Korean Refugees in Grave Danger!

February 2012

Dear Friends:

Please take a few minutes of your time to help save the lives of North Korean refugees who have been arrested in China this past month by writing a letter, sending a fax and emailing the Chinese consulates and embassies appealing for the refugees to be allowed to go to South Korea. Two considerations on the urgency of this matter are that in the groups that were recently arrested are refugees who have family members in South Korea: a 16-year-old boy whose older brother is in South Korea and a 19-year-old girl whose parents are in Seoul. In fact, the parents of the young girl are so desperate that they have appealed to be allowed to send poison to their daughter so that she can commit suicide in China rather than face repatriation to North Korea.

Secondly, with Kim Jong Un's focus on consolidating power, the situation for repatriated refugees, already horrible, is getting even worse. In January, North Korea issued instructions that the entire family including all relatives should be executed if a family member defected during the 100 day mourning period after Kim Jong-il's death. Many of you know that we hosted a defector here in the USA in September to testify in the U.S. Congress: Mrs. Kim Hye Sook, who spent 28 years in a political prison camp. Her crime? Her grandfather fled to South Korea in the early 1970s, so her entire family was sent to a political prison camp. She was 13 years old at the time.

South Korea has already requested that China not repatriate these refugees to North Korea, where they will face certain torture and likely execution because they fled during the mourning period.

Below you will see a sample letter and the addresses, the fax numbers and emails for the People's Republic of China's embassy and consulates in the USA plus the link for those of you in other countries to find the PRC embassy in your nation. We ask that you not just email or fax but also mail a letter to the embassies and consulates.

Please do not send the North Korean refugees recently arrested in China back to North Korea where they face certain torture and even execution. We urge you to accept the appeal by the South Korean government to allow them to travel to South Korea for resettlement.

(We understand and respect China’s concerns about refugees illegally entering China as they flee starvation and deprivation in North Korea. However, as a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol, China is obligated not to force these refugees back to North Korea where they face certain persecution. Furthermore, unlike any refugees in the world today, the North Korean refugees have a place to go for immediate resettlement as they are citizens of South Korea, under Articles 2 and 3 of the Republic of Korea Constitution. In addition to South Korea, many countries have
willingly accepted North Koreans for resettlement, so they need not be a burden on China.)

(As you know, the policy of forced repatriation of North Korean refugees has created an environment of violent activity in China where North Korean agents roam freely assassinating humanitarian workers trying to help the refugees, while the majority of North Korean female refugees end up being subjected to human trafficking. Instead, China should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to assist China in addressing this refugee problem by simply allowing them to fulfill their mission, so this violent activity could end. As your Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai recently stated, “The Chinese government has the responsibility to protect people’s safety and property, and to curb violent activities. That is the most important human right for the people.”

(Ending this policy would not only have a very positive benefit for China, but would also increase the potential for reform to come to North Korea, which is also in China's best interest. The ascendency of Kim Jong Un to power provides China with a tremendous opportunity to encourage reform there. The North Korean refugees, who risk their lives to flee to China, do not want to leave North Korea, but they feel they have no choice because of the conditions in their homeland. If China were to end its forced repatriation policy and work instead with the international community to resolve this problem, it would send a strong signal to the Kim regime of their need to open to reform, which China has been encouraging for decades.)

Please save the lives of the refugees by allowing them to safely be resettled in South Korea.

Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in New York
520 12th Avenue
New York, NY 10036
Fax: 1-212-564-9389

Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Chicago
100 West Erie St.
Chicago, IL 60610
Fax: 1-312-803-0105

Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles
443 Shatto Place
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Fax: 1-213-807-8091
E-mail: webmaster@chinaconsulatela.org
CHINESE EMBASSY AND CONSULATE INFORMATION
For citizens of other countries, please see the link below to find the embassy and consulate in your country: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zwjg/2490/